Spy School Party Failure
by Pickanyname
Summary: Things are weird at Spy School. Erica's being nice? And inviting them to her birthday party! Ben thinks there must be other reasons, but pushes his thoughts aside to have a good time. He doesn't get his good time. In fact, things go bad real fast, but is this what Erica had planned?
1. Authors Note

**A/N**

 **Hey everyone! Couple of things first.**

 **1\. This is my first time writing fan fiction, so if I don't capture the magic as well as the other writers do, I'll try my best to work on it**

 **2\. I'm writing using my understanding of location and all that, so if my story doesn't match the way you thought Spy School would look, if you could pretend for my story, that would be great (you can tell me if it specifically says something in the book, but I still might not change it to fit the story.)**

 **3\. I don't own Spy School books 1-3 so if my info is wrong, feel free to tell me**

 **4\. I use parentheses (a lot)**

 **5\. Let me know what you think and if there is any changes I should make!**

 **The rights to Spy School belong to Stuart Gibbs, not me**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Cafeteria

CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

February 26

1300 hours

Have you ever been having a really good day, week, month, or just all around good time, and then one little thing happens, and completely ruins it for you? In my case, this thing was Erica Hale coming to talk to me. Now, normally this would never be a bad thing, as I had a massive crush on Erica, and some signs that she had a crush on me too. She was dubbed the "Ice Queen" (by one of my best friends Zoe Zibble) because of her ability to show a complete lack of emotion. However, we had that one time where actually kissed me (though she said that was "only for my benefit") and those other times when she almost acts like a normal teenager around me, something I've never seen her do around anyone else (other than maybe her mom.) On our last mission, we had a semi-emotional conversation well we were being led, handcuffed, through the Pentagon, because where else would you have a heartfelt conversation? After that, she seemed to be thawing out a little. I swear I've caught her giving me a quick half-smile in the hallways at least twice, and she's helped me with aiming a gun, because I have an extreme inability to do so, in PE when we had free time (I know it seems like a weird concept, but it was totally normal in spy school. Unless it was Erica Hale doing the teaching.) But suddenly, she had frozen up again, not even giving me so much as a glance. This was what happened every time we had a mission, she would act like we were friends and then become so distant that I would forget that she was there. She had been nicer to me this time than she ever had before, I dared to hope it would stick, but I was met only with disappointment. So really, Erica talking to me wasn't the downside of my week, it was the highlight. It was everything that followed after that was awful.

My friends and I were sitting at a table. The tables at Spy School were round, with 6 chairs at each, adding up to over 50 in the cafeteria. Of course, rather than doing things the logical way by having 6 kids at each table and tables left over for the teachers, all 300 kids eating lunch decided to pull chairs from their original table and cram them together at one table, leaving it so people like Erica could eat lunch alone.

Even though there were never a lot of people who sat with me at lunch, the table seemed more empty than usual. Ever since Warren turned into a bad guy and left Spy School, my table felt empty without him. Don't get me wrong, I never even liked the guy, but I had gotten so used to having him around that with just me, Zoe, Mike, Jawa, and Chip, the table didn't feel right. The empty seat ended up next to me this time, leaving just enough room for someone to slip into it. I was surprised enough that someone wanted to sit by me, but even more surprised when I realized that person was Erica Hale.

She sat down like it was a totally normal thing for her to sit there, even though she always ate lunch alone. Everyone else at my table looked equally surprised. The cafeteria turned hushed as people glanced over and paused their conversations, wondering what could have brought this visit from Erica. I was wondering the same thing. Mike finally broke the ice.

"Hello Erica," He said, also pretending this interaction was normal, "How are you?" Everyone turned to face her, awaiting her response.

She chewed her food a couple more times-though how she managed not to gag was beyond me-and spoke. "I'm doing pretty good," She said casually, but not as casual as she usually was. "I can tell you're all wondering what I'm doing here." A smile broke out across her face, "I wanted to invite you all to my birthday party!"

Chip dropped his fork, Jawa started choking, and I don't think it was from the food, and I just stared at her in shock. This was so unlike Erica, I was sure there was some other reason behind this. Stop it Ben, I thought, Maybe she's just trying to be nice. It didn't seem likely. Zoe, however, was thrilled.

"Your birthday!" She practically shrieked from beside me, "I didn't know it was your birthday!"

"Yeah," Erica replied, her demeanor shifting back to it's usual ice cold feeling, "I didn't want anyone to know. I'm sure the whole school knows now, though."

Zoe's face fell, but she quickly got excited again. In a much lower voice, she asked, "When? What time? When's your actual birthday?"

Erica leaned in close and gestured we do the same. "Well my actual birthday is today, but the party is Saturday at 10pm at the abandoned building across the street." She saw our looks of protest at being off school property, especially after dark. "Don't worry, I already talked it out and it's fine." The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Erica grabbed her tray, then threw it out, and walked away, as though it never happened.

"Are we going?" Mike asked.

"I don't see why not," Jawa replied.

So it was settled: I was going to Erica Hale's birthday party. In two days from today.

As I got up to throw my trash away, I heard a crinkle in my jacket pocket. I knew I didn't have anything in there before. I stuck my hand in and felt it: a note. And thus, my bad week began.

A/N tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Cafeteria

CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

February 26th

1330 hours

I pretended to ignore the note and threw out my trash as though everything was normal, although, nothing was normal today. Every day, we had an hour to finish breakfast and lunch, with a bell signaling that 30 minutes have passed. You weren't allowed to leave the lunchroom until those 30 minutes were up. After that, we had something along the lines of a recess, but it was more like sit in the gym until it's time for your next class. Instead, I ran to the bathrooms. I went in and locked myself in a stall (just in case) and unfurled the note.

Ben, meet me outside the building at 0100 hours tonight don't be late.

I read the note over again twice more (and twice more after that), just to make sure I saw everything correctly. I picked up one thing right away: I did not recognize this persons handwriting. I had assumed it was written by Erica, as it seemed like the kind of thing she would do, and she had slipped me notes before without me noticing, and I suppose it still could have been, but it seemed extremely unlikely now, as I knew what Erica's handwriting looked like. I left the stall and threw the note in the trash, piling paper towel on top so no one could see it. I was about to turn around so I could walk out the door when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. I looked. It was a girl. I realized in my haste, I hadn't been paying attention to what bathroom I walked into, and had evidently walked into the wrong one. They really shouldn't put the bathrooms right next to each other.

"Oh! Umm... Sorry," I said awkwardly, "I was just in a hurry and didn't see which bathroom I was walking into. Sorry. I'll just leave now." I backed out of the door, embarrassed. The girl just stared at me, angrily. Luckily, she wasn't in my grade, so I hadn't seen her before. However, she would probably go tell all her first-year friends (she looked like she was a first-year) that there was some creepy boy in the girls' bathroom. I already had bad luck with being known as a bathroom creeper (long story short, I accidentally walked in on Jemma Stern using the bathroom on my last mission) and did not need that again.

I had spent a long time in the bathroom rereading the note, that I only had around 10 minutes left until my next class. I walked into the gym, where at least half of the school was.

I glanced around until I finally spotted Zoe waving me over.

"We have some party planning to do," She declared as I got to their spot in the gym. "I think-"

"I think you're being dramatic," Sighed Chip, interrupting her. "She already said she didn't want to make a big deal out of things."

"Still," Zoe explained, "This could be the first party she ever had! And she didn't have to invite us. We should at least get her a present." The was a silence as everyone thought this over. Mike nodded, confirming that he thought it was a good idea.

"Fine," Chip said, "But I'm not getting her an individual gift, it has to be from all of us."

Zoe clapped her hands once, "Perfect! I'll pick it out myself."

"Wait," I said, "Why are you picking the gift out? If it's from all of us, shouldn't we get it together?"

Zoe shook her head, "No, in case you haven't noticed, I'm the only other girl here."

"But-"

"No buts! Trust me, she'll like it."

I muttered a quick "Fine" just in time for the bell the ring.

"See you guys on Saturday!" Zoe exclaimed as she walked/skipped to her class, the rest of us following in suit (minus the skipping.) Zoe's excitement was spreading to me, and it seemed like the party was actually going to be fun.

My next class, however, was not fun.

"Turn to page 437 and read it to yourselves," My teacher, Professor Haber ordered. "We will discuss it after."

I was stuck in Aiming Weapons 101 because even I couldn't argue that I needed this class. None of my friends were in this class, and I was stuck with only first-years. I don't remember having this class as a first-year, and I'm pretty sure they added this class in just for me. So far, we hadn't even practiced aiming. All we'd done was read and take notes and read and take tests. It was so boring. But I knew I needed this class, so I did what I was told and got out my textbook. I could barely hold in my groan. It was just reviewing what we had been learning for the last two weeks. I got about halfway through the page before Professor Haber called out, "Is everyone finished reading?"

I wasn't, but I didn't want to read anymore, so I joined the chorus of "yeses."

"Good," Professor Haber said, "Now first we have, "When aiming a weapon, you should always aim with your dominant eye. Write that down! It's important."

Already done. We wrote that note down yesterday.

"Second! When aiming weapons, always concentrate." Also already written from yesterday.

The entire class continued like that. Professor Haber would say something, tell us to write it down, and it would already be written down. I scanned the classroom of first-years, who were all scrambling to take notes, and noticed her. The girl from the bathroom. Of course she was in this class, the only class I have with any first-years (excluding PE.) I ducked down a little in my seat to avoid being spotted and hoped that I could get through these last 5 minutes of class.

Apparently, I couldn't. At that moment the fire alarm sounded through the classroom. Ignoring Professor Haber's callings to wait and slow down, everyone hurried out of the classrooms and onto the grounds. We stood there and waited. Students and teachers started mumbling about how there was no scheduled fire drill today. It was freezing outside and nobody had a jacket. I waited to see any signs of smoke. I waited and waited. None came. The principal's voice finally (although I think this may be the first time I've ever been relieved to hear the principal's voice) sounded over the PA.

"Everything is fine, someone must have pulled the alarm by accident," Principal Sidebottom said. "Please return to your regular classes."

Everyone started muttering about how it certainly wasn't an "accident" as they hustled to their next class. I, however, again heard the familiar crinkle of paper from my pocket. It better not be another note, I thought.

It was.

I had picked up my supplies from AW 101 and gotten to my seat in my next class, when I finally had time to read the note.

Ben, don't think I didn't see you throw the note out. 0100 hours. Don't be late

Same handwriting. I tried to think of everyone who stood by me during the fire drill. Just the first-years from my class, and it seemed unlikely for it to be them. Then again, this was a school of spies. Anything was possible. I was so fixed on figuring out who wrote the note, I didn't pay attention in any of my other classes, or at dinner when Zoe told us what her present was. I blocked everything out until I made it to my room. Rather than throw the note away again, I just fell asleep, thinking ignoring the note would be best.

I definitely could have made a better decision.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **A/N**

 **Hey everyone! Thank you all for reading this! Someone noticed that this story is also on Wattpad, and that is true, so you can read it on there if you you'd rather. It has the same name and everything. Here's chapter 3!**

Room Number 213

CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

February 27th

0130 hours

It was late when I first heard the sound. I didn't know how late. I did what every smart person should do when they hear a strange sound at night and blocked it out with my blanket. But after I heard the faint *tap* *tap* about ten times too many, I threw off my covers to see what was going on. The sound was coming from my window, and I slowly turned my head and had to stifle a scream. There was a figure, not out but inside my room, who was drumming their fingers on the window, lightly. When they saw that I was looking their way, they jumped on top of me a slapped a hand over my mouth.

"Don't scream," Their voice threatened me. I was about to scream-about to lose my mind really-when I noticed a familiar smell. Lilacs and gunpowder. I relaxed and nodded, hoping she got my signal that I was going to keep my cool. She did, and removed her hand from my mouth.

"Erica," I breathed, hoping I was right.

"Yeah, that's me," she said, just above a whisper, back to me.

"What are you doing here?!" I yelled/whispered back to her. "And how did you get here?" I was very confused about the latter of my questions, as my room was on the third floor.

"Keep your voice down," She hissed, even though my voice wasn't much louder than hers. "As for the how, I scaled the building and opened your window yesterday. I had placed a stick in it earlier to make sure it didn't lock."

I should have been paying more attention before I went to bed, I would have noticed a twig in my window otherwise. "And why?" I asked impatiently.

"I'm getting there! Why is because I wanted to talk to you."

"Couldn't that have waited until morning?! Some people have things to do at night!"

"Like what?" She asked. She actually sounded confused, like there weren't important things that happened at night.

"Oh, I don't know... Sleeping."

She shrugged her shoulders, "You're training to be a spy," She reminded me, "You should always be ready for anything, even if it's in the middle of the night."

I rolled my eyes, "Just tell me." I reached to turn on a lamp when Erica smacked my hand away.

"You want everyone to know you're awake? Keep the lights off."

The turned off lights made me even more tired, but I shook it away and tried to listen to what Erica had to say.

"I just wanted to tell you...," She seemed like she was fumbling for the right words (nervous, maybe.) "I just wanted to tell you that I have some things planned for the party, so, like, if things start to get a little weird and crazy, everything's fine. Okay?"

I was confused. Had she really scaled a building, broke into my room, and nearly given me a heart attack just so she could tell me to be on my A game? I was always on my A game! Okay, no I'm not, and Erica wouldn't do something for no reason. It must be important.

"Can you tell me what it is?" I asked her. "You know, so I can be prepared at the party."

She shook her head, "No. Just don't get too shocked." She turned to leave back out the window.

"Wait," I called, "It was you, wasn't it, the person who gave me the notes?" I looked at the clock, and it read 1:30. I figured she must have given me the notes, and then got impatient when I didn't.

Erica looked confused. "I never gave you any notes." And with that, she disappeared out my window. If it wasn't Erica, then who was it?

I spent the rest of the night (or morning, depending on how you look at it) obsessing over that one question. Who could it be? I tried to think of everyone who passed my lunch table and everyone by me during the fire drill. But I was at a school full of spies, it could literally be anyone. Well maybe not everyone, there were quite a few incompetent people at my school. I couldn't take thinking about this anymore. I was tired and hungry (I hadn't eaten much at dinner last night) and ready to start my day. Even if it was only 4:37 in the morning. I crept out into the hallway and went to the bathrooms to take a shower (I went in the right bathroom this time.) I washed up, got dressed, and brushed my hair and my teeth. By that time it was 5am. I didn't have anything better to do, so I decided to walk around the grounds for an hour until breakfast. I never had time to look at the school's grounds at night (usually I saved night for sleeping), but let me tell you: it was just as ugly as it was in the daytime. I could see all the dead grass, and hear it crunch under my boots-but not the satisfying crunch that leaves make when you step on them-and the beaten down buildings stood out like sore thumbs. I ended up at the shooting range, where I saw a figure of someone. They looked to be holding something, probably a weapon of some kind.

"Hey!" I called.

I watch as the person jumped. "Jesus Christ!" It was a girls voice. "What are you doing out here?!"

"I could ask you the same question," I replied.

"Yeah, but I asked you first." She was stubborn.

"Well your not wrong there. I couldn't sleep and decided to go on a walk." Suddenly, a bright light shined in my face.

"No way," The girl whispered as she flipped off her phone light, "You're the guy who was in the girls' bathroom."

I moved closer so I could see her as my eyes readjusted to the dark. Of course it was her. "Yeah," I said, embarrassed, "That's me. I keep running into you."

"Like when?" The girl asked.

"The bathroom, you're in my Aiming Weapons 101 class, and now here," I listed.

She seemed to be thinking these over. "Yeah, I guess that is a lot of times. What's your name by the way?"

"Ben," I said, "And I asked you-"

"Ben?" The girl interrupted me, "I think I like bathroom creeper better. I'm Emily." She held out her hand.

I shook it. "Don't call me bathroom creeper, and you never told me what you were doing out here."

"Oh!" Emily exclaimed, "I came out here to practice my shooting. I know we have a class for that, but we never do anything there." I snorted. She wasn't wrong there either.

"Yeah Spy School gets pretty boring, believe it or not." It was her turn to laugh at that. "So how old are you?"

"I'm 13," Emily replied, "But I just got here, so I had to start as a first-year. How old are you?"

"I'm 13 too. And you sound like my friend Mike. He's also 13 but a first-year. The administration is talking about moving him up though. Maybe that'll happen to you."

"I didn't know you were friends with Mike! He's in my classes!" Leave it to Mike to know every girl on campus. "I don't think they'll move me up though, this is my first time doing anything like this. If what I've heard about Mike is true, he's been on a mission before."

"How do you know that?" I asked. "That' s supposed to be confidential."

Emily shrugged. "We're at a school of spies," She told me, "Not even confidential things can stay a secret for long."

She then turned and went to fire her gun. I braced myself and plugged my ears for the loud bang. It never came. I removed my fingers from my ears and looked. Emily had obviously fired a bullet, there was a fresh hole in the dummy, right in its heart, but I hadn't heard any sound.

"Wow," I said, impressed, "Are you sure you've never done this before? You must be a natural! And how did you manage for it not to make a sound?"

Emily smiled and replied, "As for your first question, yes this is my first time at a spy school, but I've been coming out here to practice, like, every day. And for the second question," She spun her gun around in her fingers and brought it in front of my eyes, "This is called a suppressor," Emily replied as she pointed to a part in her gun, "It muffles the sound."

"Impressive," I fumbled for my next words, "But, um, I'm, like, not so impressive at shooting a gun. In fact, I'm pretty sure the whole reason we have a class for aiming weapons is because of me. So do you think you could help me?"

Emily took a deep breath, "Hang on," she said, rather dramatically, "I want to savor this moment, when the great Ben Ripley, the defeater of SPYDER, has come to ask for my help." She paused for a moment. "But yes, I will help you."

"Thank you." I ignored the fact that she wasn't supposed to know about SPYDER either. "And between you and me, I'm not really that good of a spy."

Emily let out a somewhat fake gasp, "Really? I'd never know." We both smiled as she began to teach me how to shoot.

We practiced for-like-ever. Well more like 30 minutes, but you get the idea. Emily wasn't lying when she said she practiced a lot, she must have taken really good notes too, because, and I hate to say it, she was a better teacher than Erica. Or maybe, when Erica was teaching me, I was too fixated on her to focus on my shooting, but with Emily, I was able to hit my target 3 times. I even got a headshot! (Okay, so I wasn't aiming for the head, but it still counts!)

"That's it Ben!" Emily called out when I hit the target a fourth time, "You're getting better by the second!"

Turns out, everything that Professor Haber says in class is actually really important. Emily said she writes his notes down every day, so that she doesn't forget (regardless of how many times she already has it written down.) We were so busy that I didn't notice the sun until it was bright enough to see everything clearly. When everything clicked into place, I realized it was 5:52. That meant we only had 8 minutes until breakfast. I looked and finally got to see Emily clearly. She was pretty. She had strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes and a small nose. She was a couple inches shorter than me too. She was wearing a heavy coat, which was better than my jacket. I should have worn something heavier, I was freezing at this point. Emily looked cold too. The tip of her nose was red, and she kept sniffling.

Emily suddenly gasped, "Oh I, um, I have to go! I don't want to be late for breakfast!" And with that, she took off running.

Since I also didn't want to be late for breakfast, I made my way back to my room, cleaning myself up once again so I didn't look like I was just out shooting things.

My friends started interrogating me as soon as I sat down.

"Where were you!" They asked, "Why were you late!"

I raised my hand for silence, "I just overslept, it's not that big of a deal." They all seemed satisfied with that answer. I looked around the cafeteria, trying to spot Erica. I couldn't help hoping that she would sit by us again. But, alas, she was sitting by herself again, studying a textbook. I finished my "food" and listened in to the conversations.

Chip and Jawa were arguing about whether or not a hot dog should be considered a sandwich.

"It is a sandwich!" Exclaimed Chip. "A sandwich is two or more things stacked up on top of each other!"

"Exactly why it's not a sandwich!" Jawa replied. "The hot dog is just one item."

"No! There's a hot dog, bread, and you can add ketchup or mustard or anything else."

"None of those things count!"

The argument lasted the entire time we were eating breakfast (and, most likely, traveled into their next class.) My next class was Self-Preservation. Another one of the things I'm bad at. I usually tried my best to dodge the questions and shrink away whenever my teacher called for volunteers. I barely stayed awake for that class, and I had to force my eyes open during my other two morning classes as well. I should have gone back to sleep this morning. Lunch was a blur. Chip and Jawa were still on the hot dog thing (yes, still), with Zoe and Mike now joining in (Zoe saying that it isn't a sandwich, and Mike saying that it is).

Then came my Aiming Weapons class. I was surprised when I walked in to find a note on the whiteboard reading, Meet me on the shooting range. I set my supplies down on my desk and made my way outside. While I was walking, Emily met up with me.

"Do you think Professor Haber's gonna let us shoot something today?" She whispered to me as we walked through the hallways.

"I don't know," I replied, "I hope so."

She bumped her shoulder into mine, "Good thing you're a pro at shooting stuff now."

"All thanks to you," I said, bumping my shoulder back.

When we got to the shooting range, I noticed that, along with Professor Haber, there was also another class there. I deduced that it was Advanced Weaponry, because of the teacher, Professor Spearing. Erica was in that class.

"All right everyone," Professor Haber called out, silencing everyone, "In case you haven't noticed, we are going to be using a gun to shoot things today. So, if you've used a gun before, please step forward, if not, please step back."

"I mean I've shot a gun before," I whispered to Emily, stepping forward, "But whether or not I'm good at it is a different story." She laughed.

Up front, we had everyone from Advanced Weaponry, about 15 people, me, Emily, and two other first years, whose names I did not know.

Professor Spearing began to hand out guns to all of us, "Okay," She said, "You are all going to aim at the target in front of you and hit it as best you can. If you haven't handled a weapon before, stay quiet and pay attention to how they do it."

Everyone shot their guns. Every bullet found a target. Erica's shot was the best, striking the heart directly in the middle. Emily's was a close second, she was only a few centimeters off. I took a bit longer, running through my head everything Emily taught me. Concentrate, steady yourself, close your bad eye, picture yourself hitting the target. I took a deep breath a shot. I closed my eyes. Nobody said anything. I looked. I actually hit the target! The bullet hit in the left shoulder, not as good as Erica's, or even Emily's, shot, but still better than I normally would do. Erica looked shocked. As did Professor Haper, because I'm sure he's been made aware of how awful a shot I am.

"Alright," Professor Spearing said, clapping her hands, "To the ones in the front, take a step back. As for everyone else, come forward so we can teach you."

Erica stood next to me, "When did you become so good at shooting?" She asked, sounding confused.

I shrugged, "I don't know," I replied as I made eye contact with Emily, "Practice makes perfect I guess."

The rest of class continued like that, with people alternating between groups and practicing shooting. I didn't do so well with the rest of my shots, but I was so proud of myself, that my accomplishment stuck with me the rest of my day. I didn't even let failing my "Hiding in Plain Sight" quiz get me down. I finished my classes, ate dinner happily (and quietly now that the whole hot dog fight had finished with Jawa and Zoe letting Chip and Mike be right.)

I went to bed happy.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 **Hey everyone! Back again for chapter 4! I will try to continue updating things once a week, but I make no promises. Hope you enjoy.**

Room Number 213

CIA Academy of Espionage

Washington, DC

February 28th

0900 Hours

I woke up well rested, thankfully, but unexcited. Saturday's were the most boring day of the week, believe it or not. Like most schools, we didn't have any classes on Saturday's. You would think that I would be thrilled, as a hated the majority of the classes I had to take, but things got boring, and quickly. To start, we weren't allowed to have our phones, we weren't allowed to go anywhere else, and if we complained, they would make us go back to class. But at least I had something to look forward to today: Erica's birthday party!

I thought I was excited, there was something to get rewarded by after my long a tiring Saturday, but Zoe was absolutely ecstatic. She didn't stop talking all throughout breakfast. Rambling on about what was going to happen. But I couldn't be annoyed, because I, too, was happy.

"I wonder what kind of cake there's going to be!" Zoe wondered aloud, "I like chocolate, but any flavor is good!"

As Zoe continued to talk about her plans for the party, and what she was excited for, I heard Chip whisper under his breath, "Knowing Erica, there probably won't even be a cake."

I had to laugh at that. More of a blowing out of my nose more than usual (like when you see something funny on the internet), because I remembered on my last mission when Catherine, Erica's mom, had said that on her third birthday, Erica had requested trail mix instead of cake. Her mom had also said that after her third birthday, Erica wasn't allowed to have another birthday party. I wonder if Catherine changed her mind. Or if she even knows about the party.

I carried on through the rest of my day, though 10 o'clock couldn't seem to get here fast enough. I walked around the school grounds with Mike and Zoe, I practiced my gun shooting with Emily, I spied on Erica as she demonstrated her perfect spy skills of shooting and camouflage and scaling buildings (but she doesn't have to know I was watching her. Even though she probably did), I even studied for my Intro To Deception test, and I hate studying! And that was all before lunch. After lunch, however, things got more interesting. But it was not in my favor.

Another FREAKING note. I had to find out who kept sending me these. This one was different though. The other notes I received had been tucked into my pockets mysteriously. This one, was just sitting on my desk with the words Open Me messily scrawled on top of it. I slowly open the note and a small device fell to the ground. I hope that wasn't important, I thought. I also hoped it didn't break. I realized I was right-the note was different. This note was in a different handwriting. I still didn't know who it was, but it wasn't like the others ones. I hoped that meant it was good. The first couple sentences gave the identity away.

Ben. This is Murray Hill. You remember? From SPYDER? Like, your arch enemy? Yeah, I'm sure you do. I'd love to explain why I'm contacting you, but this writing thing is hard! So I relayed the message on the recording device that was with this note.

I looked around until I saw where it had landed on the ground. It looked like a radio transmitter. I stuck it in my ear and heard a voice I knew all too well.

"Hi, Ben!" It was, in fact, Murray Hill. It sounded like he was playing ping pong, as there was a faint *boing* every now and then. "I just *boing* wanted to let you know *boing* that we caught wind of your *boing* of your little birthday party *boing boing boing* for your girlfriend." I knew he was talking about Erica, even though she wasn't my girlfriend. I wondered how he found out. It was probably one of the moles who are most likely at our school, but who?

"Oh! And don't think we wouldn't be sending her a birthday gift! Expect a surprise. See you soon!" *click*

SPYDER knew about the party, and evidently planned on making some sort of appearance. I had to tell Erica.

It would have been a lot easier to tell Erica if I actually knew where she was. I checked the library, the cafeteria, I scoured the grounds, and looked in every classroom. If only we had class today. I may have "sorta-kinda-accidentally" memorized Erica's schedule so I could have found her there, but, today, who knew if she was even on campus?!

I ended up finding Zoe. She was playing "volleyball" (there was no net and the ball was deflated), with Mike and a few other kids. I walked up to her a narrowly avoid getting hit with the ball.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked her as she dove to hit the ball. She smacked it but it only landed a few feet away. "In private."

"Sure!" Zoe said. I gestured at Mike to come with us.

"Ha!" Some kid called from the other team, "That means you forfeit, and that means we win by default!" They all started high-fiving each other.

"Nuh uh!" Zoe called over her shoulder, "We'll be back!"

I led them to a secluded place by a wall.

"In my room, I found this note on my desk, and a message from Murray Hill," I explained. "It said that he knew about the party, and that SPYDER would be paying us a visit. I couldn't find Erica anywhere though."

They both seemed to ponder this, but then Mike exclaimed, "But this is Erica, I'm sure she already knows about what SPYDER is planning."

I considered this too. After all, hadn't Erica said that things might get a little crazy during her party? Could this be what she was referring to?

"All right," I agreed, "But I still think you should keep your guard up, and tell Erica that I need to talk to her if you see her."

"We're spy's," Zoe said, "We always have our guard up."

"Good."

I tried to calm myself down. Erica has a plan, I repeated to myself, everything will be just fine. But I couldn't push the nerves away. I had handled SPYDER before, but what really bothered me was the fact that Murry knew about the party. I knew there were moles in this school, even in the CIA, but could it be possible that one of them is my friend? We were already betrayed by Warren (although I doubt you could call him my friend), and I didn't want that to happen again. I also hadn't found Erica or seen any sign of her. I had slipped the note and message recorder-thingy into a plastic bag to show Erica later.

The day just couldn't go by fast enough. I couldn't help counting the hours that went by. Somehow, I managed to fight my way through the boredom, and into the cafeteria for dinner. I was starting to get excited. Even though there was the threat of SPYDER, I was still going to Erica's birthday party, and SPYDER or not, it was going to be fun.

I was ready. It was 9:55pm, and I was pacing my room. I could have left now, but I wanted to arrive fashionably late, I didn't want to seem too desperate and arrive there super early (even though I was pretty desperate.) I was going to wait it out until 10pm, but 9:58pm is close enough. I headed out.

I held up the note I was given from Erica, the proof that I was allowed to leave the campus, up to the security cameras. I don't know if anyone saw it, but now no one can say it didn't happen. I waited for the road to be clear, and crossed it, arriving at exactly 10 o'clock.

I walked in and was surprised that it looked how a normal birthday party would look. There were streamers and balloons, and a cake, (though I couldn't tell which flavor it was), a sign that read Happy 16th Birthday Erica! Of course she wanted people here! It was her 16th birthday! I almost panicked when I saw the pile of gifts and thought I hadn't gotten her one, but thankfully I remembered that Zoe saved the day (I still didn't know what the gift was though.) I examined the people. Zoe was already here, along with Chip and Jawa, (though Mike had stolen my thunder of being fashionably late.) There were also three girls I didn't recognize, and I deduced that they didn't go to my school because I had never seen them before. The first girl was short. She had medium length brown hair and light eyes. She blended in pretty well, and I considered that it would be possible that she went to my school, and I just never noticed her. The second girl was also short, but stood taller than the other one. She had super short blonde hair. Also a possible blend in. The third girl, however, was taller than me, with extremely long hair, all of which was bright pink. I definitely would have noticed her at my school. The only girl I hadn't noticed was Erica, she was still nowhere in sight.

Zoe skipped up to me as Mike walked through the door. He was 5 minutes late.

"Are you excited?" Asked Zoe, practically jumping up and down. "Because yeah definitely am!"

"Yeah!" I agreed smiling. "But do you know who those girls over there are?"

"Oh yeah! I talked to them a couple minutes ago, before you got here. They said they were some of Erica's old friends. Hard to believe, but they seemed nice."

Erica with friends? I'm sorry, but it seemed hard to believe. Especially since it seemed like she made friends that didn't go to Spy School.

At that moment Erica walked through the doors, accompanied by Catherine Hale. Erica looked just as beautiful as always, only she was wearing a black dress instead of her normal black jumpsuit.

The three other party girls swarmed around her and awed at how stunning she looked. They were all laughing and smiling, and it seemed like they really were friends. I stuck my hands in my pockets and felt the plastic bag. Right, SPYDER. Warning Erica.

I walked up to them. "Erica. Can I talk to you for a second?" She nodded. The girl with the brown hair smiled at me. I pulled Erica away.

"What's up?" She asked. It was weird to see her smiling.

"I got a note from Murray Hill-" She cut me off.

"I heard. The security cameras caught you telling Zoe and Mike. Someone relayed it to grandpa, and he relayed it to me. He was not happy about it. But don't worry, I've got it under control." I sighed in relief. "But," She said. Nothing good could happen when someone says "but." "We still need to be on the lookout. And should we find a SPYDER operative, we need to find out if they're planning anything." I nodded. Of course we would.

After I relaxed, the party was fun. We played "pin the tail on the donkey" but Catherine actually let us use throwing stars. Erica won-no surprise there. What was surprising was the fact that Erica's other friends didn't seem surprised by our throwing stars ability, and they were good too. Is that a thing in normal schools now? There were also other classic party games, and a snack table. I found myself there. The girl with the brown hair arrived after me.

"Hi," She said, grabbing some pretzels and putting them on her plate.

"Hi to me?" I asked, and she nodded, smiling. "Oh hi."

"You're Ben, right," She didn't really seem to be asking, more like confirming what she already knew.

"That's right," I replied, regardless if it was a rhetorical question or not. "How do you know Erica?"

She smiled, "I've known her forever," She said, "We used to go to school together." The concept of Erica going to any school other than spy school was weird. I always figured she was raised there. She held out her hand, "I'm Valerie, and the girl with the pink hair is Mia, and the other one is Scarlett. They went to school with Erica too, but are a year older than us." They must have been really close friends to have been invited to the party.

Catherine called us all over to the cake. It was chocolate. She lit the candles and we all began singing, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you-" The lights shut off. There was only the candlelight to see. I stopped singing, but one lone, vaguely familiar voice continued, "Happy birthday dear Erica," There was a whacking sound. "Happy birthday to you *whack* And *whack* Many *whack whack* More." *whack whack whack*

The whacking sounds got closer and closer until

*whack*


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A/N

Just some quick announcements! I started writing this before the newest Spy School book came out, so things that happened in the previous chapter might not follow along what is now in the story, so I'll just say this takes place between SSSS and SSGS. Also, Spy School is being turned into a movie! You can read about it on the Stuart Gibbs website. How do y'all feel about that? Thanks for reading!

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I woke up in a dark room and didn't know where I was. My memory was a little foggy, but I tried to retrace the events of the party. I remember talking to Valerie, and singing happy birthday, but we never finished singing, did we? I must have been knocked out, along with everyone else at the party. My eyes adjusted. I spotted 4 figures who appeared to be awake (they looked to be sitting up and moving), and made my way over to them. It was Erica, Mia, Valerie, and Scarlett.

They were chatting softly, and I could make out what they were saying as I got closer.

"-and I'm bored and I'm tired and I'm hungry," Mia was complaining. It seemed as though she'd been complaining for a while, as everyone looked exasperated with her.

"We've literally been locked up here for forever! You could have been sleeping then!" Scarlett countered.

"I wasn't tired then!" Mia groaned. "Oh hi, Ben!" Everyone turned to look at me, just realizing I was there. I guess I am better at sneaking then I thought.

Valerie suddenly gasped, "They didn't take my purse! Which means..." She dug around in her purse for a minute, although I never noticed she had a purse at the party. "Tah dah!" She produced a pack of Twizzlers out of her purse and looked triumphantly at us before ripping the packaging open and shoving one in her mouth. Although I'm not entirely sure what kind of person she is if she carries Twizzlers around with her at all times. A smart person to say the least.

"Give me one!" Mia demanded as she reached across Erica to get one.

"Nuh uh," Responded Valerie, "You should have brought your own."

"Oh you're right, I should have known we were going to get captured for forever and a day and brought my own snacks," Mia said sarcastically.

"Can I have one?" I asked. The look on Mia's face was priceless as Valerie happily complied, and then stuck her tongue out at her.

"Look, we have more important things to discuss," Erica said, handing Mia some Twizzlers, though I never saw her grab one. She was back to her normal all business Erica. "Does anyone know what time it is?"

"Hang on," Valerie said, digging through her purse once more, "I know I had my phone in here somewhere..." She gasped, "They took my phone! Those dirty slime-balls went through my purse! Don't they know better than to look through someone's purse?"

"We got captured and are being held hostage by an evil organization, and you're concerned about your purse?! At least they left your Twizzlers," Erica said, annoyed.

"Wait a second!" Something Erica had said caught my attention. "You told them about the evil organization! They're not supposed to know about SPYDER! They're not even supposed to know we're spies!"

"Well even if they didn't know we were spies, they do now," Erica responded. I should have watched what I was saying. "But, come on, was I really not going to tell my friends that I'm a spy?"

"Uh, yeah. I wasn't allowed to tell my best friend I was a spy," I pointed out to her.

"It's fine, we were young. If they told anyone, people would think that it was a joke."

"Besides," Scarlett added, "We're probably more trustworthy than your friend."

"You do realize that my friend is Mike. He's an agent at the school."

"Oh."

"Guys, I really need the time!" Erica said urgently.

"Why?" I asked her. Usually, thanks to my math skills, I could tell exactly what time it was, but my mind was a bit hazy, since I just woke up.

"Because before you all woke up," She explained, "I heard someone saying that they would check back in with us at 5 o'clock."

"In the morning, or in the afternoon?" Mia asked.

"I don't know!" Erica threw her hands up in exasperation. "I also don't know what's going to happen to us when they get here, and I don't want to find out!"

"Are you planning on escaping?" Valerie asked. Not long after, I heard some noises outside the door.

"Everyone act like you're sleeping!" Erica hissed and slumped down to the floor. I tried to follow her lead, but I was never good at fake sleeping as a kid. I braced myself as I heard keys jangle, and a door creak open.

"Tsk, tsk," I heard a voice say, "I know you're not sleeping, everyone up." There were shuffling noises like footsteps that got louder. "I said, get up!" I felt a sharp kick to my side and let out a gasp, curling myself up into a ball. "The rest of you, up and out the door." I waited a minute, then 2, and opened my eyes. No one was there but the door was wide open. The 4 girls were standing up, and I jumped up with them, holding my side.

"Are you okay?" Valerie asked, looking concerned.

I nodded, "Sorry I gave us away."

"It's fine, they probably knew to go for the weakest link," Erica said coldly.

Ouch. That stung. I knew I was bad, but the fact that Erica thought I was the weakest out of three girls who have never done any sort of spying hurt worse than the kick to my side. Valerie looked at me sympathetically but didn't say anything. I guess she knew Erica well enough to know that she was mostly cold and distant.

"Where to next?" Scarlett asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Erica replied. "Out the door."

The hallway was surprising well lit. Based on the room we were locked in, I was expecting something more like a dungeon-no windows, no lights, maybe so water dripping from the ceiling, coming for who knows where, maybe some chains attached to the walls-but the hallway reminded me of a school hallway. It had tile floors and a few doors and windows here and there. It's a little strange, but I found that kind of comforting, like I could almost pretend that I was still at Spy School.

I felt bad about leaving everyone back in the room, but Erica said they would probably walk out the door and find us if they woke up.

The lack of light coming in from the outside windows indicated that it was 5am, not 5pm. Way to early to be up in my opinion. I had tried to run out one of the doors, but Erica had stopped me, reminding me that there might be some sort alarm system that'll send people after us. I was once again thankful to have Erica with me on missions, because I would have never thought of that until it was too late. Maybe I really was the weakest link.

The hallway had a few turns, but we kept going straight ahead, figuring SPYDER wouldn't make it difficult to find them, since they wanted us to get to them, and the person who got us was already nowhere in sight, so he clearly wasn't worried about leaving us. We got to a door at the end of one of the hallways, wide open, whereas all the other doors were shut, and walked into the room on the other side of it. One foot into the room, and I heard a voice I was getting really tired of hearing. The same voice I heard on almost every mission, the same voice of someone I once thought was my friend, the same voice from the recording.

"Ah, and here they are!" Murray Hill said, "You see I told you they'd find their way." However, it was not the same voice as the person who had woken us up. I suspected that belonged to the person Murray was speaking to, who I could only assume was standing in the dark corner of the room, as that's where Murray directed his voice.

"Yes, I was worried that they would get lost," The voice said. It was eerily familiar, "But I wanted to get here as soon as possible to discuss our next plans." The voice made me feel weird. It brought back feelings of unease, but I couldn't place why. I peered into the corner. "Oh, are you trying to see who I am?" The voice asked, "C'mon Ben, I would think that with all your smarts, you would have guessed it by now." The figure stepped into the light and revealed-

Joshua Hallal. I should have known. Not to sound psychotic or anything, but why couldn't this guy just die already? He had a prosthetic leg and arm, and was missing an eye, and his face and body were badly scarred and bruised. But, if you looked past all that, I could almost see why Erica would have like him. Joshua was probably as close to Erica as she would allow someone to be, so when he betrayed the CIA and joined SPYDER, she got more closed off than ever. Speaking of Erica, I watched her tense up as she spotted him. It was small, but enough for me to notice. I could tell she didn't like his presence here. I didn't blame her.

"Why have you taken us hostage?" Erica asked coldly.

"Well," Murray replied, "We were gonna hold you hostage, and then ask for a ransom from the CIA so we can get money for our next scheme."

"Doesn't SPYDER have millions of dollars?" I asked.

Murray cringed, "We did, but we kinda spent it all between the frozen yogurt machine and pool and indoor trampoline park, but all that stuff was definitely worth it because now-"

"The point is," Joshua interrupted, "We're low on cash, and we figured what better way to get money than holding some of the CIA's best junior agents ransom. It's a shame that we had to take everyone else, we really just wanted Erica and Ben. But is that Mia, Scarlett, and Valerie? It's been forever since I've seen you guys."

"And yet it still hasn't been long enough," Scarlett practically spat in his face. I could tell they had a bad history with Joshua too. Or maybe they just heard enough stories from Erica to know what a scum-bag he is.

"Ah, yes, well back to the holding room," Joshua said. "We'll call you back when we need you."

I should have been scared, but honestly, I was overjoyed. Why? Why was I so happy that we had been kidnapped? Because Joshua had called me one of the best agents, meaning I really was important. Murray went to escort us out the door.

"Oh and Ben." I turned back to face Joshua. "Just thought you'd like to meet the newest member of the team." Apparently, there was someone else in the shadowy corner the whole time.

And that person was Emily.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 **A/N**

 **Sorry for the late update! I went through and fixed spelling and grammar mistakes, but then I got lazy and stopped writing. Feel free to let me know if you find any other mistakes! Thanks for reading! And thank you everyone who writes reviews because it encourages me to write more. You guys rock.**

Unknown Location

Building That Looks Like A School

Washington, D.C. (Hopefully)

February 29th (Probably)

0530 Hours

I was shocked. But then, I wasn't. Because if you think about it, that would make sense. It was unlikely that a student would come to Spy School in the middle of the year, be put into a class younger than their age group, claim they've never done anything like spying before, but manage to be amazing with a gun. Okay maybe it wasn't that unlikely, as I know people who fit at least one of those categories, but I still should have known something was up. I also guessed she'd been the ones sending me the notes. I didn't see her walk by me in the cafeteria, but she was in the bathroom, meaning she could have seen me throw the note out. She was also in my class when the fire alarm went off, and it's a safe bet to say the fire alarm was set off by another SPYDER agent that was in on the plan. Even though it made since, I still felt betrayed.

"You're working for them?" I asked her, even though I knew the answer was yes. "But I thought we were friends." I'll admit, I probably sounded like a little kid whining, but I couldn't help it. "You taught me to shoot a gun."

"Look, Ben-" Emily started to say something (probably something along the lines of "Ben you're so amazing, I would never betray you" or "I'm just kidding, I'm only pretending to be on SYPDER's side") but Joshua cut her off.

"Yes, and I do wish she hadn't done such a good job at that." He looked in Emily's direction. "He's already smart, we don't need him trained in other skills. We had an advantage on him, but now he's slightly competent." Emily hung her head, slightly.

I was about to protest the fact that he insulted me, and I was talented in other fields (maybe not, but I like to pretend) but Joshua said, "Emily, will you please escort them back to their room? And here," He handed her a gun, "In case anyone tried to run off." She took it dutifully and poked the gun at my back, signaling that we should start walking.

I walked back through the hallways, but it didn't feel as homey as it had before. Emily stood in the back of the group, gun at the ready, and I stood in front of her. Erica led the way.

"Turn left," Emily reminded her.

"I know where I'm going," Erica snapped back.

"Well sorry." Emily rolled her eyes.

"You should be," I muttered.

"What?"

I said you should sorry!" I said angrily. "I can't believe you would do something like this." We'd arrived at the door leading to the room we were in.

"Hasn't your "friend" Erica already taught you this? That's just how spying is." She flipped on the lights in the room, "Why are you guys sitting in the dark like a bunch of weirdos?" She turned to walk out the door.

"Wait," I called out to her, "It was you who sent me the notes, wasn't it?" She looked at me in a way that confirmed the question. Then she left, and closed and locked the door behind her.

I scanned my eyes around the now brightly lit room and saw that everyone else was up now. Catherine rushed over to us.

"My goodness, you've really given us a scare," She chirped in her delightful British accent, "But I'm glad to see you're all okay. What happened?"

"Ben here is crying over his friend Emily because apparently she's evil now," Erica stated coldly.

"Hey!" I was upset, but she could clearly see I wasn't crying.

"Wait Emily like the Emily who goes to our school?" Mike asked. I nodded. "But she seemed so cool. You never told me you were friends with her."

"That doesn't matter," Erica snapped, "Because you're not supposed to have friends in the spying business! Now you're gonna be all upset this whole mission and it's gonna ruin everything!"

"You have friends!" I pointed out to her, "They're standing right there!"

"I just brought them along for the mission."

"Mission?" Zoe asked, "This is a mission? I thought you were inviting us to your birthday party. Did you really have this planned the whole time?"

"Obviously." Erica gracefully stormed into a small corner of the room and put her head in her hands.

Catherine walked over and slung an arm around Zoe to comfort her. "I know Erica can be a bit... Rude at times, but we have much to discuss," She waved Chip and Jawa over, who were standing against the wall, trying their best not to engage in the conversation. "Okay, so the plan is to stall here as long as we can until we can get a location and send people to rescue us and capture the SPYDER agents here in the process. Excuse me well I go discuss things with Erica."

I was sitting against the wall, thinking about everything. I had been betrayed before, but it hurt even more the more times it happened. And Erica. She seemed so angry. I know we'd had the "you can't have friends and be a spy talk" plenty of times over, but I can't believe she would say that she didn't have any friends when people she had called her friends were right in front of her.

"Hey." Valerie came and leaned against the wall next to me.

"Hi," I said weakly. She slid down to sitting.

"So you and Erica are close?" She asked.

"I thought we were. Why do you ask?"

She chuckled a little bit, "I dunno, I just kinda figured since you'd been on a lot of missions with her that you might have gotten close to her."

"She doesn't let anyone close to her."

Valerie sighed, "Erica's not actually mean, she just wants to be the one to save the world, and doesn't want anyone to get in her way."

"Yeah, and she'd push anyone in the way of danger for her sake. And pushes everyone away from her."

Valerie cringed, "Well Erica's had bad experiences with people getting too close to her."

That I knew. "Joshua," I said quietly.

Valerie nodded, "Mmhm, and between you and me, I think that's why she was acting so mean. Well at least more angry than she usually is."

I laughed. "Do you know the whole story behind them?"

"Yeah, um, as you know, Erica has known me for forever, that part wasn't a lie, and one summer, she came home and told me about this amazing guy she had met." Valerie stopped herself, "God, I shouldn't be telling you about this. You know she'll kill me if she finds out I told you."

I laughed, again. I was surprised someone like Valerie would be friends with Erica. "I won't tell her you said anything."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

She took a deep breath, "Okay, so she came home one summer and told me about this guy and how he was nice and funny and a really good spy, and I thought, 'no way could Erica Hale actually have a crush on someone' because Erica 3 years ago was exactly like the Erica you know today. But I could tell she liked him.

"Now, the girls and I have an odd relationship with Spy School, but we were welcome there, so the next school year she took me to meet him. I didn't like him. Even then he gave off a sort of intimidating vibe, but Erica either didn't care or didn't notice. I'm sure that in her eyes, he was the only spy there who was as competent as she was, and so they became friends. And they were really close friends too. They were always teaming up together for capture the flag, and working on projects together, so you can imagine how she felt when she found he was working for SPYDER."

I could. At least a little bit. I had just been betrayed by someone I thought was my friend. And I had only known her for a couple of days. I couldn't imagine what I would do if I found out my closest friend was working for an evil organization.

"So you think that's why she's upset?" I asked her.

Valerie shrugged. "Maybe. I was thinking that seeing what Emily did to you caused her to think about what he did to her."

I nodded slowly. That made sense. I felt a little bad about how mad I was at Erica. But only a little, because who knew if Valerie was right or not.

"Ben! Valerie! Come here!" Catherine called us over to everyone else.

Valerie sighed and stood up, "But then again, what do I know?" She offered me a hand and helped pull me up. She looked me in the eyes. "Remember, promise."

I nodded, "I promise."

We stood with the rest of the group.

Catherine huddled is all in close, "All right, we've got a plan."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Unknown Location

Building That Looks Like A School

Somewhere in The World

February? March?

0700 Hours

I wish I could tell you what the plan was. But I couldn't. Not because it was a secret or anything, but because I didn't now what the plan was. I wasn't listening to what Catherine was saying, or what Erica was saying when she rejoined the group. I was more focused on Erica herself, and what Valerie had told me. Was it even true. Valerie didn't seem like one to lie, but she did grow up with Erica, who would lie about something like that. Did she just want me to feel sorry for Erica? It worked. I knew she wouldn't appreciate me feeling bad for her, but I did. Or should I not? I was confused. I was even more confused when Catherine clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Alright, everyone got the plan? Good!" It didn't feel like a good time to tell her I had no idea what was going on, so I didn't. No one did anything immediately, they all just kinda awkwardly stood in one spot, or walked away. The room was not big enough for 10 people to have their own personal space.

Since it didn't seem like the plan of action was going into play, I stood with everyone else, and hoped it wasn't too obvious that I didn't know what the plan was. There's a good chance I did look clueless, because when I met Erica's eyes, she glared at me. But that could have been for a number of reasons, one being that that could simply be Erica's permanent face. She walked up to me.

"Ben," She began, sweetly, with a look in her eyes that made me nervous, "Do you know what the plan is?"

I hesitated, and I knew that gave it all away, but Erica waited for me to answer. She nodded her head forwards in a _go on_ kind of way. I tried to think of something that sounded like something Catherine and Erica would plan-something with a lot of twists and turns...

"Of course I know the plan!" I exclaimed, Erica looked amused, like she couldn't wait to see what I came up with. "So first, uh, Mike, Zoe, and I are gonna cause a loud commotion, and then that's-" Erica cut me off.

"Literally all of that is wrong," She told me angrily.

"You didn't let me finished," I tried to say, but Erica didn't let me finish that either.

"That doesn't matter!" She exclaimed. "Because if you were listening, you would have known what was going on! But you weren't listening were you?" I shook my head. "Why weren't you listening Ben?"

By this time, everyone was listening to us, or at least trying to pretend they weren't listening to us, but doing a really poor job. Erica looked at me and sighed. She pulled me against one of the walls (and somehow managed to be far away from everyone in the small room), while everyone "averted" their eyes and went to talking to someone. I'm sure they were all still listening.

"So Ben," Erica began questioning me. I didn't like the tone of her voice. "Can you tell me why you weren't listening to the plan? Were you distracted by something?"

"Uhh..." I was a really bad liar.

"I saw you and Valerie over in the corner talking earlier," She mentioned, "What did she tell you?" Erica's voice got dark.

I blanked. I promised Valerie I wouldn't tell Erica, and I'm not fond of breaking promises, but Erica could be scary when she wanted to be (which was most of the time.) I see what Erica was saying about how friends can influence how you reacted to situations. I apparently considered Valerie friend enough because I was willing to lie for her. Or at least willing to try to lie.

"She was telling me about how she, umm, about how she once broke her arm while she was... Skiing. Yeah, she told me how she likes to ski and she was so disappointed because she couldn't ski for like, 3 months." I don't know why skiing popped into my head, but that's what came out. I braced myself for Erica's response. To my surprise, her eyes lit up a little bit.

"Oh, yeah! We used to go skiing all the time! I was never good at it though. But she's been skiing since she was... Did she tell you? I forgot."

Another lie! Think, think, think...

"Yeah, wasn't it, like, since she was 7? 8 maybe."

Erica glared at me. I gulped and knew I messed up.

"Really Ben? How long were you going to lie to me? Valerie's never been skiing in her life!"

I was already in hot water, I figured it wouldn't hurt to dig the hole a little deeper.

"Oh, did you think I meant regular skiing? I meant water skiing! Silly me."

She didn't buy it.

"Ben," She told me, "You do realize I'm training to be a spy, right? You can't get anything past me, so stop trying. What were you and Valerie talking about?"

I cast my eyes down. I should tell Erica, but I just... Couldn't. I wouldn't.

"It's nothing important," I told her instead. It was only a half lie.

"If it's not important, why can't you tell me?"

I was really struggling here. "Look, I just can't tell you," I said.

"Well, if you can't tell me, you're going to have to find someone else to tell you the plan."

"Fine by me," I told her, "I don't need you, I have plenty of other friends who would be more than happy to tell me what's going on." And with that, I stomped away.

Valerie beckoned me over to where her, Scarlett, and Mia were talking.

"What did she want?" She asked me. "You didn't tell her anything, did you?" She was visibly nervous.

"No," I told her, "I didn't say anything, but Erica wouldn't say anything to me about what our plan is."

"Wait, what did you tell Ben that you have to keep secret from Erica?" Scarlett asked.

Valerie cringed. "I told him about how, like, Erica and Joshua used to be, I don't know, but about them," She told her.

"Oooh!" Mia said, a bit to loudly, "You really messed up! I'd be surprised if Erica didn't beat you to the ground."

"First of all," Valerie said, "I could beat Erica in any fight, and second, it's not like Ben's gonna tell her, so it's fine."

I wondered if Valerie could really beat Erica in a fight. I doubted it, but I was curious as to what made Valerie think that she could.

"The plan," I reminded them.

"Oh right!" Valerie exclaimed. "So, first we have to make one of the SPYDER agents come check on us. We figured they wouldn't let us starve, because they need us alive for their plan, but if they don't check on us soon, we're gonna make a bunch of noise to annoy them. Then, once they're in here, you and Erica are gonna run through the door and keep running until you find a place where you can find a phone so you can plan a rescue mission. And then, the backup's gonna help us get information on SPYDER. Got it?" I nodded. It seemed like a simple enough plan.

"Thanks." I went to go talk to Mike.

I found Mike talking to Zoe. Their friendship had grown a lot lately, and I was beginning to worry they were becoming better friends with each other than they were with me. They stopped abruptly when they saw me coming.

"What did Erica want with you," Zoe asked. It was more like a snap. Zoe had become a lot more concerned about Erica's and mine relationship since I learned she had a crush on me. Or maybe I had just noticed after it was revealed the she liked me.

"Nothing," I told her, "She just wanted to know something, and then was mad when I wouldn't tell her, so she wouldn't tell me the plan."

Zoe muttered something under her breath. I pretended to ignore it.

"Do you know the plan now?" Mike asked. He was always looking out for me. I nodded.

Just then, we heard keys jingling and the door opening. Every head in the room snapped towards the door. Murray wheeled in a cart of food that looked like it could almost be edible.

"Room service," He called.

I looked at Erica, waiting to she if she would give me a signal on when to run. She didn't. I went on my own time.

I ran out the door, passing a startled Murray, and into the hallway.

I didn't make it very far before- _splat._ I ran into something brick-wall-like. I groaned and sat up, finding something much worse than a brick wall. Joshua Hallal. He was staring down at me with a unnerving glint in his eyes.

"Tsk, tsk," He said, "Come on Ben, you know that's not how your supposed to behave." He hoisted me up by my shoulders, and dragged me away.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 **A/N**

 **I switched up the point of views in this one (don't worry, it's marked) hope you guys like it.**

Unknown Location

Building That Looks Like A School

Somewhere in The World

February? March?

0830 Hours

Joshua was strong. And I mean really over the top strong. The you-shouldn't-be-this-strong kind of strong. He yanked me back by my shoulders, so hard that it hurt. But I didn't bother trying to fight back. I knew I didn't need to. Erica would come running out the door any second and save me, just like she always did, and then we'd escape and find a phone. Just like the plan. I looked in the direction of the door. No Erica. 1, 2, 3 seconds later, no Erica. I started twisting now, flailing my body to escape, frantically trying to keep the door in sight so I knew when Erica would come to my rescue. But she never showed. I felt a small flicker of hope when a figure moved in the darkness, but it was squashed when Murray Hill walked out of the door.

"Looking for you girlfriend, Ben?" He taunted. "You think she's gonna save you like she always does? Ha! She lounging around in there without a care in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if she was glad you got captured!"

I tried to convince myself he wasn't referring to Erica. He just couldn't be. She always, _always_ came to my rescue. But, there's no one else Murray calls "my girlfriend." Before I could think anything else, Joshua dragged me through the hallways.

 _Erica's POV_

I should have gone after Ben. I shouldn't have let him believe the plan. I heard what Valerie told him-it's not Valerie's fault, she thought that was the plan too-I should have interfere and told him the real plan. I should have grabbed him from Joshua and punched his lights out. Ben couldn't handle the situation on his own, he needed someone to protect him. _That's not your job,_ I told myself. I had repeated this phrase over and over again in my mind, waiting for it to stick (it hasn't.)

I needed it to stuck if I was going to get anywhere on this mission. But don't worry, I hadn't left Ben to the wolves just so that I could be the one in charge on this mission-not even I was that mean-I was already in charge. Basically in charge. Okay, no, I wasn't really put in charge, because this wasn't a mission that was cleared by the administration, Mom and I just did what we wanted and staged it to look like we accidentally got captured. And my mom made me promise not to take control over the mission and not to put myself in danger. Despite popular belief, I was still a normal teenage girl. Maybe not normal, but I still had to listen to my mother. Of course, like most teenagers, I still rebelled. She hadn't noticed it yet, but the entire everything so far has been my idea. I was in charge.

"-and why are you just standing there stone-faced? You should be going after Ben!" Zoe was yelling at me. Everyone was yelling actually, I could just hear Zoe's words clearly (she was the loudest.) I hadn't been trying to be stone-faced, it had just become my normal facial after years of practicing.

"You were supposed to stick to the plan!" Mike jumped in.

"Oh please," I snapped, "Why would the plan be to just run, do you realize how stupid that plan is?" I'll admit, I didn't expect anyone to know that I was lying when I told them the plan (I was a phenomenal liar) but did that really sound like something I would come up with?

"Oh, but you let everyone believe that was the plan and you let Ben just run out there? Teammates are supposed to be on the same team and know what's going on!" Mike again exclaimed. I ignored him and instead turned my attention to Zoe, who had mutter something under her breath.

"What did you say?" I asked, somewhat menacingly. Was that unnecessary? Yes. I had heard what Zoe said, it was "she probably let them capture Ben so she could take control over the mission." Not true. "I let them take Ben for other reasons," I stated, she tried (and failed) to hide her cringe when she realized I had heard what she'd said.

"Oh yeah," She fired back, trying to regain her confidence, "What is that then?"

"To get SPYDER off our backs," I told her. Everyone's eyes went wide when they noticed what was happening. "I figured they had to be listening in on our plans, because why wouldn't they? I'm sure they figured we would try to escape, which is why Joshua was ready to catch Ben. But, now they think they've conquered our plans, even though those weren't our plans in the first place."

"You gotta be one step ahead of 'em," Mia pitched in. She was always there with her unhelpful backup.

"So, what's the real plan?" Zoe asked meekly.

"Well," I began, "Contrary to what they said, there is absolutely no way SPYDER has spent all their money. They may have a lot of fancy things but they are rich. And SPYDER is a clever group, why would they tell us there actual plans? So, of course, other motives are suspected. I think they want the CIA to know that they have us-" My mom butted in at this point.

"But we don't want them to know we've been captured, because they might send someone after us, falling right into SPYDER's hands," She said. "So, we need to delay them letting anyone know they have us as long as we can. Once someone figures out how to do that, let me know, because I have nothing." Everyone dispersed. I had business to attend to.

I found Valerie standing with Scarlett and Mia. No surprise there, they tended to group together.

"What did you tell Ben?" I demanded in a harsh whisper. She sucked in a breath.

"What makes you ask that?" She asked.

"He wouldn't tell me what you told him, so it was obviously a secret, so what is it and why can't you tell me?"

"Okay, just remember, I'm your best friend, so don't get mad at me. We were just talking, and you got brought up in the conversation, and I just kept talking, and-"

"She told him about you and Joshua," Mia interrupted her. I was internally screaming. This was just great. Valerie stared at Mia in disbelief. "What?" Mia asked, "You weren't getting to the point fast enough. And you called yourself your best friend when I'm obviously her best friend."

I took a deep breath. There were more important things to attend to. "And why," I asked, "Did you tell him?"

"He needed to know! He was really upset with you because you were acting so cold and I figured you wouldn't want him to be mad at you," Valerie told me. I'll confess, I have talked to ten about Ben before (and maybe-maybe-more than once) but I promise, that was strictly for business matters. I wasn't sure if Valerie knew that, though.

"I'm always cold around them, they literally call me the Ice Queen." All of them smirked, slightly at the name. "And it doesn't matter to me if he was upset with me, that's not my problem!"

"If you want him to like you it is!"

"I don't want him to like me!"

"Wait," Scarlett said, her hands forming a "T" to signal "time out." "I thought _you_ liked him. Don't you?"

I should have yelled "no!" right away. But I didn't. I hesitated, and it was a second too long. Long enough for them to know I was pondering it, long enough to know that I was carefully choosing my words. So, rather than answer "yes" or "no," I did my best to change the subject. "It doesn't matter if I like him or not, I'm a spy, I can't be in a relationship, it gets in the way of spying, much like it's doing now. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do my job!" I tried to walk away, but Mia grabbed my hand and held on tight.

"Nope! You can't leave until you answer yes or no," She exclaimed. Quite childish of her.

I looked her directly in the eyes and managed to declare, "no," without changing my facial expression. Mia let go off my hands and held hers up in surrender.

"But if you do like him," Valerie began, not nearly as eager as I was to drop the subject, "I suggest you change your attitude before he falls for Zoe over there." I shouldn't have told them about that.

This time I did manage to storm off, aggravated to say the least, because as much as I hate to admit it, they were right.

 _Ben's POV_

I was tied down to a chair back in the room we had been in before. I didn't even bother struggling. What was the point!? If my team didn't care enough to save me after obviously not telling me what the real plan was, then I didn't care enough to get back to them any time soon. But when Emily burst through the door, I knew I had to warn them.

"They've changed their plans!" She exclaimed, "And I think they're onto us."

 **Side note: sorry if that's not how you imagined Erica's inner thoughts to be. It never mentions her thoughts in the actual books, so I was just making things up. (I didn't edit this chapter yet, so sorry if something doesn't make sense.)**


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 **A/N**

 **An early chapter! I was bored, and had no school, so here you go! And I'm going to be writing through different point of views kinda frequently (at least until Ben rejoins the group), so just a heads up.**

Earth

Dark, (kind of scary) room

Definitely March by now

? Unsure of time

 _Zoe's POV_

Erica dispersed the group, and went to talk with her "friends." Probably to brag about how smart she is and how clever her plan is and how everyone likes her even though she's mean. No, now _I'm_ being mean. It wasn't her fault people were drawn to her-she obviously went through several measures to make sure people didn't like her-but could someone please explain to me why they were? And Ben? Why did he like her so much? She never smiles at him, or talks to him, or helps him. They aren't even in the same grade! But for some reason, he really likes her, and I don't think it's just for her looks. What was I doing wrong?

I trudged over to the corner and slid to the ground. I was tired, and I was hungry, and I was pretty upset with how Erica was treating everyone. Yes, I understand she's usually cold (I'm the one who named her Ice Queen after all), but she had told me that she thought of us as friends before. And I remember on the ski lift back in Colorado when we had our "girl talk." And then she invited me to a party (yes, it was just a scheme to get us on a mission, but she chose _me_ for the mission.) I was so sure she liked me. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe she didn't like me because I liked Ben. That would explain why she told me she was my friend, but now she's treating me like I'm nothing. But Erica was a fantastical spy. I'm sure she knew about my crush on Ben way before it was announced. Of course, my assumption was based on the assumption that Erica liked Ben too. Which I'm pretty sure is true-at least a little bit true-but you could never be sure with Erica.

"You okay?" A voice asked. I looked up. It was Mike. He and I had become great friends since he joined spy school.

"Yeah I'm fine," I told him, "I just wish Erica would have warned us before she thrust us into a mission and got us captured."

"Ahh, yes, well Erica's not really one to share her ideas with people. But I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Why do you think she's so mean?" I asked him.

"I thought you guys were friends."

"So did I."

He sat against the wall with me and over to where Erica and her friends were talking. She seemed angry at them. Even her friends couldn't be saved from Erica's death stare. But the girl who she was obviously mad at (Valerie I think is her name) didn't seem phased by it. She was just trying to calm her down.

I realized Mike was talking to me, "-but it reality, I have no clue why she's icy. You've known her longer than I have, Z."

Oh right, I asked him a question.

"Yeah, I get that she's always distant, she's always been like that. But now she just seems... mean. Like before, she just ignored you when you tried to talk to her, but now she stares you down and tells you to keep walking. Why do you think she's like that now?"

"You should ask her. Or I could," He offered.

I laughed, "C'mon Mike. I know you're new, but I think you would have learned by now: never question Erica Hale."

He began laughing too, "Hey, it was just a suggestion!"

The door opened again. This time, because for some reason he must of forgot that the plan didn't work, Chip tried to run out the door, only to be pushed back on his butt by a tray being pushed by Emily.

"Hey," Mia, the pink haired girl, called, "We don't want you here!"

Emily rolled her eyes, "Trust me, I don't want to be here either, but I was forced to bring you food."

"Oh perfect! I like food."

Emily walked out the door, leaving the tray behind, and locked it.

"Thank God," Mike said, "I'm starving."

 _Emily's POV_

"You, stay put," Joshua told me as he dragged Ben away, "Let me know if anything happens."

 _Ugh._ Why did I always get the boring jobs on missions? Well mission since his was my first one. I was way more competent than Murray, and this was his like 17,000th mission. That's probably not right, but I'm not good with numbers. I decided to make tmyself useful and put my ear up to the door, being as quiet as I possibly could. I could hear them chatting, just as I had before, when I learned about how Ben and Erica were going to escape. Or, evidentially, how just Ben was going to enescape.

"Why are you just standing there, ifstone-faced?" I heard one of the kids yell. They were only making it easy to hear me.

"To get SPYDER off our backs," another one said. I had to walk away from the door, with my hand covering my mouth, so they didn't hear me laughing. _They definitely got SPYDER off their backs,_ I giggled to myself. I stopped giggling when I heard them talking about how they thought we didn't really need the money, and had other plans. Now, I crept away from the door, and ran down the hallway.

When I found the room (these hallways are confusing!) Ben was all readied tied to a chair-using duct tape.

"They've changed their plans," I painted as Joshua swiveled his head around to face me, "And I think they're on to us!"

Joshua stood there for a second before turning to me and yelling, "Well what are you doing here! Go find out what they're planning!" I was about to run back, annoyed, when he called, "Actually, Murray, when you brought them food, was it actually food? Or something else."

Murray started laughing, quite over dramatically if I do say so myself, and said, "It was plastic!"

He stopped laughing when Joshua snapped, "Why would you do that? We need them alive! Not starved to death! Go make them some actual food."

"But," Murray was about to complain, but decided against it. He sighed, "Does it have to be good food?"

"No," Joshua told him, "Just make it edible. Oh and-" He pulled a vile of something out of his pocket, "-put this in it."

"What's that?" Ben called out from his chair. Poor, concerned Ben. Tied up to a chair. Unable to escape.

"Don't worry about it," I told him, and I followed Murray to the kitchen, knowing that I was going to have to run the food back.

 _Ben's POV_

There was probably poison in the vile. Or something else nasty enough to kill you. My head was jumping to the wildest conclusions. I calmed myself down and asked Joshua, "So what are your plans. Must be pretty lame if my friends already figured it out." I was trying to sound confident.

He hesitated, but said, "Well, since you're not getting out of here, I guess I can tell you." The first part of the sentence made me gulp. "We do t actually need money. We have plenty of that. What we do need, is power. We're going to send a video to the CIA, and we're going to hypnotize them into doing what we say. And you're going to help us."

"You plans not going to work," I told him, "And I would never help you."

Joshua laughed eerily, "Maybe not yet, but just you wait." He put a TV in front of me. It was playing a video of baby ducks. I was confused. Did he think bribing me with cuteness was going to get me to work for him? I pondered this as I began to feel very sleepy, and shut my eyes.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 **A\N**

 **Why have I taken so long to update? Two words. I'm lazy. So yeah, I'm not gonna promise to uodate soon because procrastination, but I'll try. Tell me what you think!**

No Location Status

Trapped In A Room

March 1st

1030 Hours

 _Erica's POV_

Emily shut the door behind her. I heard the click of the lock which meant escaping would be a bit harder than it could have been.

"I'm starving," I heard Mike say. I watched as he started toward the platter of food.

"Stop!" I yelled, smacking his hand away.

"Oww!" He exclaimed, rubbing his hand. I must have hit him harder than I meant to. "What was that for?"

"To stop you from dying," I told him, "There's about a 77% chance that SPYDER poisoned that food."

Somebody behind me muttered under their breath, "Wow, where'd you get that number from?" For their sake, I decided to ignore them.

"Okay, yes of course, SPYDER probably did poison the food," Mike rationalized, "But since we're probably going to die in here anyway, I would rather die with my belly full of food than on an empty stomach." Everyone else murmured in agreement, though some were considering their options.

"Now now, it seems we're getting ahead of ourselves," Someone said. It was Mia, grinning like a complete idiot. I couldn't help but wonder what she could possibly have planned. And I was a bit nervous to find out. "I've found a way to get us out of here," She declared.

 _This ought to be amusing,_ I thought to myself, smiling on the inside. Everyone else was eager to hear what she had to say, as they were desperate to get out of this room, I however, knew Mia all too well to know that there was about a 98% chance her plan wasn't going to work. I glanced at Valerie and Scarlett and figured they thought the same thing.

"So," Mia began, "The first time Emily walked is in here, I noticed she had two identical keys in the same chain with a tag labeled "keys to secret room" and so since she had two, I figured she wouldn't notice that one was missing. Then when she came in here again, I snagged it from her, so now we can escape!"

The other people in the room looked overjoyed, but I couldn't believe that Mia thought that would work. "Mia, seriously?" I asked her, "She's training to be a spy and you thought she wouldn't notice a missing key? Or notice when you took something from her?!"

Mia shrugged, "Well she didn't seem to notice."

"Why don't you go ahead and try to open the door then." Mia walked over to the door. There was just enough light coming from a single sliver of a window at the very top of the wall so she could see where she was going. She stopped when she got to the door.

"There's no lock," She said disappointedly.

"Yes," I answered her, "Because why would someone put a lock on the inside of a door when there's already on the outside?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Well," Mike said, "I stand by my previous statement: I'm not going to die on an empty stomach." Then he and everyone else (except me, and surprising Zoe), began to eat all the food. Even my mom. I couldn't believe it.

"I can't believe you guys," I told them disappointedly, "We're not going to find a way out of here if all of us die from poison!" But no one listened to me. I turned to Zoe and told her, "You might as well eat too if everyone else is." She shook her head no. Fine by me.

There was almost no food left when someone piped up, "See nothing happened," Then I heard a thud on the ground. Guess they spoke too soon. Typical. Then everyone else fell to the ground. Just great.

"What do we do now?" Zoe asked. I ignored her, and instead walked over to my mom, who was also lying on the ground, and checked her pulse. There was still a steady thumping.

"Well they're alive," I informed Zoe, "So I guess now we wait. We should be fine, because any SPYDER agents will assume everyone's passed out." Then I heard a sound, like air hissing, and I began to feel disoriented. Guess I was the one who spoke too soon.

 _Joshua's POV_

I looked at Ben. He had just passed out. Perfect. Emily came back into the room and reported the food had been delivered (although she had more than a few complaints about Murray, and how she was forced to deliver it.) Everything was going as planned.

 **A/N**

 **Woah! Super short chapter after a super long wait. Sorry. I'm updating on a different device than I usually do, and it's a pain to type on, which is one of the reasons this is so short. Hope you guys enjoyed it anyway!**


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 **Hey! Yes, yes, I've been gone for FOREVER! No real reason, just didn't feel like writing. Comments really help persuade me to write though, so thank you to everyone who encourages me to write by doing that. And thanks to everyone because we are past 1k views! I know every writer says this, but this is a really big deal for me because I never thought I'd get that many. Thanks everyone, love you!**

No Location Status

 _Erica's POV_

"Glad to see you're awake."

Let's be clear: I wasn't actually awake. Well, I was, but I wasn't. I was fully conscious, able to hear everything that was going on around me-thus how I heard someone speaking to me-but I hadn't yet opened my eyes. How the person knew I was awake, I had no idea. As far as I knew, I had no tells of being awake. My eyes were shut, but not clenched; My body was still, but not rigid; My breath was long and even (7 counts in, hold 4, 8 counts out.) For the past five minutes, I had been laying like that, trying to gather intel about where I was by listening, not opening my eyes in case there were camera's for people to see me awake, but I hadn't realized anyone was awake in the room. I had no clue how long they had been with me, and that worried me. Maybe my spying skills were going downhill. Then again, I had no clue who the speaker was. I peeked one eye open (the far one that I was slightly laying on), and heard a voice again say, "C'mon, I know you're awake. No need to be sneaky about it."

Giving up, I opened both my eyes and squinted in the light. When my eyes adjusted, I could make out her features: small, strawberry blonde hair, dark-ish light-ish eyes (it was hard to tell an exact color from the distance I was at, but I had enough information to know who it was.) Emily. That dirty, rotten, betraying face of hers got real close and I could see her eye color. It was hazel.

"You gave us quite a scare," she said in mock concern, "we need you alive. Never thought you were going to wake up. Still a bit nervous about your friend over there." I rolled to face the direction she was pointing and saw Zoe passed out on the ground. Well, hopefully she was only passed out. I looked around and saw everyone else passed out too.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, your friends over there did what they were supposed to do which was eat the food that we provided for you. It was laced with a small amount of sleep inducers, but we couldn't find the right amount to keep you guys asleep for the right amount of time, so we were gonna use knockout gas, but if you took the knockout gas straight on, then you'd be out for too long. So you were supposed to take the sleep inducers, then since your breath would be slow, you would take in less gas, but you and your friend messed up. You guys do need to eat though, I brought some food that I promise isn't poisoned. Trust me, we need you alive."

"If the knockout gas was supposed to knock me out longer, then why am I the first one awake?" I questioned. Emily just shrugged.

"Aren't you the top spy in your school?" She asked me. "If you're as crazy as the people around here say you are, wouldn't be trained to withstand things like that? You probably use your free time ingesting poison or something weird like that." She laughed. I didn't find it funny at all, because I did, in fact, build up my immune system by eating small amounts of poison. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"At least I don't spend my time slacking off and doing... What do you guys even do around here? Eat ice cream all day long?"

"Oh my gosh!" she gasped, "You do practice things like that in your free time!" Emily, for some reason, thought this to be the funniest thing in the world. She looked as though she was going to fall over from laughing. I rolled my eyes this time, though it seemed to only make her laugh harder.

"But for your information," she said when she had calmed down from her laughing fit, "I don't just "eat ice cream" around here. Some people might, but not me. Instead, I'm training to be the best spy in the facility. Even now I'm helping come up with the plans. Our latest scheme was all _my_ idea. One day, when I run SPYDER, I'm going to take you down."

She was trying to be intimidating, but it wasn't going to work on me. She may be the best spy working for SPYDER, but I'm the best spy in the CIA. Intimidating techniques did not work on me.

"Bold talk," I replied, "but you do realize when, I'm sorry, _if_ you become head of SPYDER, you just gave away your identity, which will make it ten times easy to take _you_ down."

Emily smirked. She leaned down real close and whispered in my ear, "oh please, it's not like you're ever going to escape."

My face fell ever so slightly before I caught it and hardened my glare. She wasn't going to get to me.

"Why?" I asked her. "Because this plan of yours is so good? It can't be that good if a, what? 10-year-old girl made it up."

I watched as her jaw clenched slightly-not enough for a normal person to notice, but I was no normal person.

"13," she replied in a forced tone, "I'm _13_ years old. And it's not like you've figured out our plan, so it must be good. And you're never going to figure it out. We took Ben, and we know he's the only one who was ever able to defeat us. And you're not getting him back, so..."

My heart lept into my throat. What did she mean not getting him back? Did they kill him?

 _Enough, Erica,_ I reminded myself. _Pull yourself together and stop letting your thoughts run wild._ I took a deep breath. It's not like I care what happened to Ben anyway, right?

I cut the plan-talk, and tried to find a new approach to get her to talk. "Why did you join SPYDER in the first place?"

Emily rolled her eyes at me, "good try, but you have to be a level 10 friend to access my back-story. Let's just say, SPYDER needed me because I'm the best so here I am." She stood up off the floor and looked down at me. "And yes, I am good enough to tell you were just stalling for time. It wasn't working."

As she was walking to the door, I did a quick scope of the room, and for the second time in a long time, my heart skipped a beat.

"Wait!" I cried out to her. "Where's my mom?"

Emily laughed, "oh, her? We figured you guys didn't need anyone competent on your team, so we took her away. Sorry! Better explain that to the rest of your friends." She pointed towards the rest of my team. I followed her finger and saw that some of them were beginning to stir. I turned back to her and saw she was gone. I hadn't even heard the door open.

"They are not _my_ friends," I muttered to myself.

"Erica?" I turned. Mike was awake and on his feet, tiredly rubbing his eyes. With a yawn, he asked, "where are we?"

Everyone (except for Zoe) was awake and (except for my mom) accounted for.

"I guess you were right about the food being poisoned, huh?" Scarlett said with a small laugh.

"Yeah but it didn't help me, I got knocked out too," I replied. I told them about my conversation with Emily.

"Sleep pills _and_ knockout gas?" Mike asked. "Because that's definitely not overkill. At least they brought us good food."

Mia and Valerie both gasped and ran over to the platter of food.

"Didn't you both eat before?!" I exclaimed.

"Hey," Valerie sternly said, pointing a loaf of bread at me, "leave me and my carbohydrates alone."

"Well everyone hurry up with grabbing your food and get over here. I've got a plan."

"Does it involve me and Chip?" Jawa asked. "Because we haven't, like, done or said _anything_ throughout this entire story-oops, I mean mission."

I sighed. "Yes, it involves you. Just hurry up." Because I had a plan even better than the last. My conversation with Emily hadn't been a complete failure because I learned something very important about her: she was too prideful. And that was going to be our advantage.

 **Sorry again for being late. If I'm ever like two weeks late updating, feel free to yell at me ;).**


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N**

 **So funny story (I mean y'all probably won't find it funny but) I was going to update, and then I realized I'd waited so long that I forgot what my story was about and I was gonna have to go back and reread everything and I didn't want to do that so I didn't and that's why you guys are just now getting an update. I just scanned over everything so you can let me know if things aren't adding up. Also, you guys also might wanna reread everything (just kidding!) (kinda)**

 _(Ben's POV)_

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0300 hours (probably)

My eyes snapped open. How long had I been out? What happened? Where is everyone? Where am I? I brought my hands to my temples, and tried to massage the fog from my brain. I couldn't remember anything important. Well, I mean I remember the basic things like my name (Ben Ripley) and my best friend's name (Mike) and where I went to school (St. Smithen's aka Spy School) so I didn't have amnesia, but I couldn't remember where I was, or what I was doing. There was a mission, right? Yeah, and Erica had a plan, only it wasn't her real plan, and she got me captured, and left me all alone. And I got tied up. And Joshua probably poisoned my friends. Although I was kind of mad at them because they could've saved me instead of letting me be... well I don't actually think anything happened to me, I passed out after watching some baby ducks, but still, they should've saved me. Even though I was mad at them, I didn't actually want them to be poisoned. I finished my internal recap and realized I wasn't tied up anymore. I was in a pretty nice room considering I was being held hostage. It was small, but I was in a soft chair, and there was a bed, and a platter with some food, and a tv that wasn't on. I was hungry, but I didn't eat the food because I saw what Joshua had Emily and Murray put in my friends food. Just then, a door opened, and Emily walked in.

"I know you're mad at me-" she began.

"Uh, yeah, because you betrayed me," I finished for her.

She had the audacity to laugh, "not what I was gonna say but I can understand why you're upset. I was gonna say I know you're mad at me, but we were once friends and I thought you'd like to know that you friends are alive and okay."

"Why should I believe you?" I shot back at her.

"You're being awfully mean Ben, and that's not like you. I really did like being your friend, and you seemed really nervous so as soon as I saw you awake, that mirror is a one-way mirror, and came to let you know that they just got knocked out and most of them are awake. I even brought you food. Yours isn't poisoned."

I was sure she was lying. At least about the food, and probably about everything else. "I don't want your food," I told her.

"Eat the food!" She commanded.

I didn't want to but I felt compelled to do so. I started eating. I didn't pass out right away, so that was good, but I couldn't stop eating. Not until she said, "stop" did I stop. I heard the door open and Joshua walked in, even though this room was not big enough for three people.

"Having some fun, Emily?" he asked. I didn't like the way he said that, or that Emily nodded. "Well, now that Ben's awake, I think we can rejoin him with his friends. I'm sure they'll like what we did to him." I didn't like the way he said _that_ either. But I was forced from my chair, and dragged down the hallway, but to a different door. Joshua opened the door, threw me in, and locked the door behind me.

I took in my surroundings. I was in a white room. It wasn't blindingly white, the light was coming from the ceiling, and there were other colors too, like the door was wood colored, but it was pretty white. Also, all my friends were there and awake, seemingly unharmed. They looked up in my direction, and stared in shock.

"Ben!" Valerie broke the silence by yelling and launching herself in my direction, pulling me into a hug. Everyone else followed in suit. Well almost everyone. I bet you can guess who didn't hug me. My friends were asking me questions me questions left and right, but I was focused on one person.

"I survived," I pointed out to Erica.

"Good observation," she replied, "I can tell." I could have died, and she didn't even seem like she cared. She was still being as emotionless as always.

"You know it wouldn't even be a question whether or not I survived if you didn't let me get captured." I couldn't help it; I was mad at her for leaving me to fend for myself.

"You'd think that, but things haven't been peachy her either." I know she caught the dig I made at her in my last statement, but she refused to acknowledge it. Oh the nerve she has!

"As you could she, you know, if you actually paid attention once in a while, we've been relocated. And we lost my mom."

"Wait she's dead!" Chip exclaimed.

"No! You idiot!" Zoe yelled back at him. "We already went over this, we just don't know where she is!"

"Oh."

But I was to busy notice Chip's idiocy. Too busy being angry, that is. First, Erica sends me out to the wolves, then she refuses to acknowledge that I could have died, and that I mad at her, and then she attack's my spying ability!

"Now if you'll excuse us," Erica said, "we're in the middle of making a plan." She walked back over to the center of the room and everyone else followed.

I was finally understood what Erica has said about not letting emotions get in your way, because I wasn't sure I could work with her on this mission with how mad I am with her. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned. To my left, with her hand in my shoulder, was Valerie, and to my right was Mia and Scarlett.

"She cares," Valerie whispered to me.

And just like that, I wasn't mad anymore.

 **So now I'm gonna go reread and edit everything, but I'll be back with more updates!**


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